November 15, 2001

In a precedent-setting move, in early November of this year one of China's 100-year old pharmaceutical companies, Yunnan Baiyao Group, visited Taiwan and achieved its goal of signing a strategic alliance with Taiwan's Hi-life Biotechnology Ltd. The agreement was the first of its kind to be signed in Taiwan. With recent events seeing both Taiwan and China well on the road to officially becoming members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the biotechnology industry on both sides of the Taiwan Strait is expected to be drawn closer together, resulting in opportunities for more frequent interaction between biotech firms.

Susan Lin, general manager of Hi-life Biotechnology, stated that in recent years European and American pharmaceutical companies have placed increased emphasis on the development of drugs extracted from plants that have the potential to replace chemically synthesized drugs. At present, 90 percent of herbal sources come from China - a fact that drives home the importance of the mainland in developing herbal medicine.

Hi-life Biotechnology has been involved in researching herbal medicine for approximately seven years. Not long ago, the company hired Dr. Murad, 1998's Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, to be the deputy general manager of the firm and to introduce German herbal extract technology to Taiwan. Yunnan Baiyao Group, on the other hand, is a pharmaceutical company with a long history and well-known R&D in herbal medicine. The powerful combination of both companies' expertise is expected to be extremely successful in promoting Chinese herbal medicine in the international market.

Statistics show that global sales for herbal medicine amounted to US$14.8 billion in 1997, of which Taiwan's market share was US$120 million. According to estimates by Hi-life Biotechnology, by 2006 the global market for herbal medicine will reach US$32.3 billion, a growth of 119 percent. Accordingly, this would mean a four percent increase in sales for the Taiwan herbal medicine market.

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